Transfer management server, termainal, and programs executed thereby

ABSTRACT

It is possible to transfer a plurality of independent services used on a certain terminal to other terminal and use them with ease. A service transferring method of transferring service being used at a transferring source terminal to a transferring destination terminal, in which information about correlation between a session ID which identifies a session between a service server which provides the service and the transferring source terminal using the service and a terminal ID of the transferring source terminal is stored in at least either one of the service server and a transfer management server, and either one of the transferring source and transferring destination terminals transmits a terminal ID of the one terminal and a terminal ID of the other terminal to the transfer management server to notify service transfer and upon receiving the notification of the service transfer, the information about correlation between the session ID and the terminal ID recorded in either the service server or the transfer management server is updated.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to an on-line service system whichprovides service from a server to a terminal (client) by using sessioninformation and the like, and more particularly, a method oftransferring service between terminals for transferring, betweenterminals, a plurality of services used on the terminals with ease, anda terminal, a server and a service system therefor.

BACKGROUND ART

As functions of recent mobile terminals improve such as notebookpersonal computers, mobile phones, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) andgame consoles, there is an increasing need for, in the course of use ofvarious kinds of on-line services such as Web and on-line game onterminals including a desktop personal computer, a television set and acar navigation system, transferring service to another terminal (e.g.mobile terminal) as required to continuously use the service on theterminal as the transferring destination. Possible is, for example,transferring service to a cellular phone while on-line shop is used on aWeb by a desktop personal computer.

For realizing such processing, it is a common practice to incorporate afunction for service transferring (service transferring function) intoan individual service application on a server which provides service.Description will be made, for example, of a case where a user usingon-line shop by a personal computer halfway starts continuous use of theservice on a cellular phone.

For thus enabling a user who uses on-line shop by a personal computer tohalfway start continuous use of the service by a cellular phone, aservice temporary interruption function and a use resuming function as aservice transferring function are mounted on a Web site (serviceapplication) which provides on-line shop service.

When a user selects the temporary interruption function during the useof service by the personal computer, information indicative of a stateof the service being used (session information) is stored on a serverside. In this state, when the user successively accesses a Web site forcellular phone by using a cellular phone as a service transferringdestination to execute user authentication and further selects the useresuming function, the use can be resumed from a state of temporaryinterruption by restoring the session information of the service whichis stored before on the server side.

Disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is a method of a server client systemin which data held by a client terminal is transferred to other terminalas it is, so that a terminal as a transferring destination takes over astate of a client application as of before switching and receivesservice from a server.

The method recited in Patent Literature 1 enables continuous use ofservice by transferring information indicative of a state of servicebeing used on a terminal as a transferring source (session information)to other terminal as a transferring destination to restore the sessioninformation interrupted on the transferring destination terminal.

Disclosed in Patent Literature 2 is a method which realizes servicetransfer between terminals with a special gateway provided between aserver and a terminal. In this method, the gateway manages sessioninformation between the server and the terminal, based on whichinformation, communication between the server and the terminal isappropriately switched to realize service transfer between theterminals.

Patent Literature 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2007-140712

Patent Literature 2: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-176432

When a plurality of services independent from each other which areprovided by a plurality of service providers are used on one terminaland transferred to another terminal, however, there are the followingproblems.

First problem is that when transferring service between terminals byusing such a service transferring function as described above which isincorporated into a service application, operation will be extremelycomplicated for a user. The reason is that with a service transferringfunction provided for each service application, even when transferringoperation is executed in any one of service applications, none of itsinformation is shared by other service applications, so that thetransferring operation should be repeatedly executed for each serviceused by the user.

Another problem is a large development burden for a service provider.The reason is that the service transferring function should beincorporated into each service application.

Second problem is that when information indicative of a state of servicebeing used on a terminal as a transferring source (session information)is directly transferred to other terminal as a transferring destination,service security might not be maintained by the method recited in PatentLiterature 1. The reason is that only the transfer of sessioninformation between terminals enables service switching, which preventsa server (service application) side from recognizing service transfer ofthe terminals. It might happen, for example, that by copying sessioninformation of service being used by a certain user onto other terminalby using wireless communication such as wireless LAN or infraredcommunication by a third party, he or she uses the service as it is.

Third problem is that in such a case where a network between the serverand the terminal is under the management of a communication serviceprovider as in a case of a cellular phone network, service transfercannot be realized by such a method which realizes transfer of servicebetween terminals with a special gateway provided between a server and aterminal as recited in Patent Literature 2. The reason is that when thenetwork is under the management of a service communication provider,neither a terminal user nor a service provider is allowed to dispose agateway between a server and a terminal.

The method recited in Patent Literature 2 has a further problem that notransfer of service can be realized in such a case where a plurality ofterminals are connected to different networks as a cellular phone and apersonal computer. The reason is that it is difficult to dispose acommon gateway between a plurality of terminals connected to differentnetworks and a plurality of servers.

In addition, when a special gateway is provided for realizing transferbetween terminals in a wide area network, a bottleneck might occur oncommunication. The reason is that all the communication between serversand terminals pass through the gateway.

OBJECT OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

An object of the present invention is to provide a method oftransferring service between terminal devices which method enables aplurality of independent services used on a certain terminal to betransferred to other terminal and used with ease, and a terminal device,a server and a service system therefor.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a method oftransferring service between terminal devices which method enables aservice application development burden to be mitigated by separating aservice transferring function commonly required for transferring servicefrom each service application, and a terminal device, a server and aservice system therefor.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a method oftransferring service between terminals which method enables security intransferring service between terminals to be maintained by recognizingtransfer of a terminal on a server side, and a terminal device, a serverand a service system therefor.

Still further object of the present invention is to provide a method oftransferring service between terminals which method enables servicetransfer to be realized with ease even under an environment whereprovision of a gateway between a server and a terminal is difficult andwhich method enables occurrence of a bottleneck on communication to besuppressed as much as possible, and a terminal device, a server and aservice system therefor.

SUMMARY

According to a first exemplary embodiment of the invention, a servicetransferring method of transferring service being used at a transferringsource terminal to a transferring destination terminal, includes

a step of recording information about correlation between a session IDand a terminal ID of the transferring source terminal using the servicein at least either one of a service server and a transfer managementserver, which session ID identifies a session between the service serverwhich provides the service and the transferring source terminal,

a step, by one of the transferring source terminal and transferringdestination terminal, of transmitting a terminal ID of the one terminaland a terminal ID of the other terminal to the transfer managementserver to notify service transfer, and

a step of, upon receiving a notification of the transfer of the service,updating the information about correlation between the session ID andthe terminal ID recorded in either the service server or the transfermanagement server.

According to a second exemplary embodiment of the invention, a transfermanagement server which manages transfer of service being used by atransferring source terminal to a transferring destination terminal,includes

a correlation information storage unit which records information aboutcorrelation between a session ID and a terminal ID of the transferringsource terminal using the service in at least either one of a serviceserver and a transfer management server, which session ID identifies asession between the service server which provides the service and thetransferring source terminal, and

a transfer management unit which, when a request for obtaining a sessionID related to the terminal ID of the transferring source or transferringdestination terminal is made from the service server having received aservice request from the transferring destination terminal, notifies theservice server of the session ID related to the terminal ID of thetransferring source or transferring destination terminal by referring tothe correlation information.

According to a third exemplary embodiment of the invention, a transfermanagement server which manages transfer of service being used by atransferring source terminal to a transferring destination terminal,includes

a notification destination information storage unit which storesnotification destination information of at least one service serverincluding a service server that provides the service,

a transfer management unit which receives, from the transferring sourceterminal or the transferring destination terminal, a notification oftransfer of service with a terminal ID of the terminal in question and aterminal ID of the other terminal, and

a service transfer notification transmission unit which, when receivinga notification of transfer of the service, transmits a service transfernotification with the terminal ID of the transferring source terminaland the terminal ID of the transferring destination terminal to theservice server stored in the notification destination informationstorage unit.

According to a fourth exemplary embodiment of the invention, a transfermanagement server which manages transfer of service being used by atransferring source terminal to a transferring destination terminal,includes

a notification destination information storage unit which storesnotification destination information of at least one service serverincluding a service server that provides the service,

a transfer management unit which receives, from the transferring sourceterminal and the transferring destination terminal, a notification oftransfer of service with a terminal ID of the terminal in question andan identification ID which is unique between the transferring sourceterminal and the transferring destination terminal,

a terminal change information storage unit which, when receiving anotification of transfer of the service, stores a pair of the terminalID of the transferring source terminal and the identification ID and apair of the terminal ID of the transferring destination terminal and theidentification ID so as to correspond to each other as terminal changeinformation, and

a service transfer notification transmission unit which transmits aservice transfer notification with the terminal ID of the transferringsource terminal and the terminal ID of the transferring destinationterminal to the service server stored in the notification destinationinformation storage unit by referring to the terminal change informationstorage unit.

According to a fifth exemplary embodiment of the invention, a terminalwhich uses service provided by a service server, includes

a terminal ID storage unit which stores a terminal ID applied to eachterminal,

at least one client application for transmitting the terminal ID to theservice server to make a service request, and

a service transfer management unit which transmits the terminal ID ofthe other terminal as a service transferring source or a servicetransferring destination and the terminal ID of the terminal in questionto a transfer management server which stores information aboutcorrelation between a session ID which identifies a session between theservice server and the transferring source terminal using the serviceand the terminal ID of the transferring source terminal to notifytransfer of service between the terminals.

According to a sixth exemplary embodiment of the invention, a terminalwhich uses service provided by a service server, includes

a terminal ID storage unit which stores a terminal ID applied to eachterminal,

at least one client application for transmitting the terminal ID to theservice server to make a service request, and

a service transfer management unit which transmits the terminal ID ofthe terminal in question and an identification ID which is unique withrespect to the other terminal as a service transferring source or aservice transferring destination to the transfer management server tonotify transfer of service.

According to a seventh exemplary embodiment of the invention, a aservice server which provides a terminal with service, includes

a session information storage unit which stores information about asession with the transferring source terminal using the service,

a function of transmitting a session ID which identifies the sessioninformation and a terminal ID of the transferring source terminal to atransfer management server which records information about correlationbetween the session ID and the terminal ID of the transferring sourceterminal, and

a function of obtaining a session ID related to the terminal ID of thetransferring source or transferring destination terminal from thecorrelation information of the transfer management server upon receivinga service request from the transferring destination terminal andtransmitting the session ID obtained to the transferring destinationterminal

According to a eighth exemplary embodiment of the invention, a serviceserver which provides a terminal with service, includes

a session information storage unit which stores information about asession with the transferring source terminal using the service and aterminal ID of the transferring source terminal so as to be correlatedwith each other,

a service transfer notification receiving unit which receives a servicetransfer notification from a transfer management server, and

a function of, when the service transfer notification receiving unitreceives a service transfer notification from the transfer managementserver, rewriting the terminal ID correlated with the sessioninformation of the session information storage unit.

According to a ninth exemplary embodiment of the invention, a program tobe executed on a terminal that uses service provided by a serviceserver, which causes the terminal to execute

a processing of transmitting a terminal ID applied to each terminal tothe service server to make a service request, and

a processing of transmitting the terminal ID of the other terminal as aservice transferring source or transferring destination and the terminalID of the terminal in question to a transfer management server whichstores information about correlation between a session ID whichidentifies a session between the service server and the transferringsource terminal using the service and the terminal ID of thetransferring source terminal to notify transfer of the service betweenthe terminals.

According to a tenth exemplary embodiment of the invention, a program tobe executed on a terminal that uses service provided by a serviceserver, which causes the terminal to execute

a processing of reading a terminal ID applied to each terminal from aterminal ID storage unit,

at least one client application for transmitting the terminal ID to theservice server to make a service request, and

a processing of transmitting a terminal ID of the terminal in questionand an identification ID which is unique with respect to the otherterminal as a service transferring source or a service transferringdestination to the transfer management server to notify transfer of theservice.

According to a eleventh exemplary embodiment of the invention, a programto be executed on a transfer management server that manages transfer ofservice being used by a transferring source terminal to a transferringdestination terminal, which causes the transfer management server toexecute

a processing of recording, in a correlation information storage unit,information about correlation between a session ID and a terminal ID ofthe transferring source terminal using the service in at least eitherone of a service server and a transfer management server, which sessionID identifies a session between the service server which provides theservice and the transferring source terminal, and

a processing of referring to the correlation information to notify theservice server of the session ID related to the terminal ID of thetransferring source or transferring destination terminal when a requestfor obtaining a session ID related to the terminal ID of thetransferring source or transferring destination terminal is made fromthe service server having received a service request from thetransferring destination terminal

According to a twelfth exemplary embodiment of the invention, a programto be executed on a transfer management server that manages transfer ofservice being used by a transferring source terminal to a transferringdestination terminal, which causes the transfer management server toexecute

a processing of reading notification destination information of at leastone service server including a service server that provides the servicefrom a notification destination information storage unit,

a processing of receiving, from the transferring source terminal or thetransferring destination terminal, a notification of transfer of servicewith a terminal ID of the terminal in question and a terminal ID of theother terminal, and

a processing, when receiving a notification of transfer of the service,of transmitting a service transfer notification with a terminal ID ofthe transferring source terminal and a terminal ID of the transferringdestination terminal to the service server read from the notificationdestination information storage unit.

According to a thirteenth exemplary embodiment of the invention, aprogram to be executed on a transfer management server that managestransfer of service being used by a transferring source terminal to atransferring destination terminal, which causes the transfer managementserver to execute

a processing of reading notification destination information of at leastone service server including a service server that provides the servicefrom a notification destination information storage unit,

a processing of receiving, from the transferring source terminal and thetransferring destination terminal, a notification of transfer of servicewith a terminal ID of the terminal in question and an identification IDwhich is unique between the transferring source terminal and thetransferring destination terminal,

a processing of recording a pair of the terminal ID of the transferringsource terminal and the identification ID and a pair of the terminal IDof the transferring destination terminal and the identification ID so asto correspond to each other as terminal change information in a terminalchange information storage unit when receiving a notification oftransfer of the service, and

a processing of referring to the terminal change information storageunit to transmit a service transfer notification with the terminal ID ofthe transferring source terminal and the terminal ID of the transferringdestination terminal to the service server read from the notificationdestination information storage unit.

According to a fourteenth exemplary embodiment of the invention, aprogram to be executed on a service server that provides a terminal withservice, which causes the service server to execute

a processing of storing information about a session with a transferringsource terminal using the service,

a processing of transmitting a session ID which identifies the sessioninformation and a terminal ID of the transferring source terminal to atransfer management server which records information about correlationbetween the session ID and the terminal ID of the transferring sourceterminal, and

a processing of obtaining a session ID related to the terminal ID of thetransferring source or transferring destination terminal from thecorrelation information of the transfer management server upon receivinga service request from the transferring destination terminal andtransmitting the session ID obtained to the transferring destinationterminal.

According to a fifteenth exemplary embodiment of the invention, aservice transferring system which transfers service being used by atransferring source terminal to a transferring destination terminal,includes

a service server which provides the service, and

a transfer management server which stores information about correlationbetween a session ID which identifies a session between the serviceserver and the transferring source terminal using the service and aterminal ID of the transferring source terminal, wherein

the transferring source terminal and the transferring destinationterminal comprise

at least one client application for transmitting a terminal ID appliedto each terminal to the service server to make a service request, and

a service transfer management unit which transmits a terminal ID of theterminal in question and a terminal ID of the other terminal to thetransfer management server to notify transfer of service, and wherein

the service server having received a service request from thetransferring destination terminal obtains a session ID related to theterminal ID of the transferring source or transferring destinationterminal from the correlation information of the transfer managementserver and transmits the session ID obtained to the transferringdestination terminal.

According to a sixteenth exemplary embodiment of the invention, aservice transferring system which transfers service being used by atransferring source terminal to a transferring destination terminal,includes

a service server which provides the service to store information aboutcorrelation between information about a session with the transferringsource terminal using the service and a terminal ID of the transferringsource terminal, and

a transfer management server which stores notification destinationinformation of at least one service server including the service server,wherein

the transferring source terminal and the transferring destinationterminal comprise

at least one client application for transmitting a terminal ID appliedto each terminal to the service server to make a service request, and

a service transfer management unit which transmits a terminal ID of theterminal in question and a terminal ID of the other terminal to thetransfer management server to notify transfer of service, and wherein

the transfer management server having received a notification of servicetransfer from the transferring destination terminal or the transferringsource terminal notifies the service transfer to the service server.

The present invention enables a plurality of independent services usedon one terminal to be transferred to other terminal by one operationwith ease.

The present invention also enables a service transferring functioncommonly required for transferring service to be separated from aservice application to reduce a service application development burden.

Also according to the present invention, recognizing terminal transferon a server side enables security in service transfer between terminalsto be maintained.

Furthermore, the present invention realizes service transfer even insuch a case where a network between a service server and a terminal isunder the management of a communication provider as a cellular phonenetwork or in such a case where a plurality of terminals are connectedto different networks as in a case of a cellular phone and a personalcomputer.

Moreover, according to the present invention, a bottleneck is unlikelyto occur on communication even when transfer between terminals isrealized in a wide area network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a structure of a system according to afirst exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing a structure of a terminal according tothe first exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a structure of a service serveraccording to the first exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a structure of a transfer managementserver according to the first exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing a structure of the terminal accordingto the first exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing a structure of the terminal accordingto the first exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a specific example of session correlationinformation according to the first exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a flow chart showing operation according to the firstexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a flow chart showing operation according to the firstexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 10 is a block diagram showing a structure of a terminal accordingto a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a flow chart showing operation according to the secondexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing a structure of a terminal accordingto a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a flow chart showing operation according to the thirdexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 14 is a block diagram showing a structure of a system according toa fourth exemplary embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 15 is a block diagram showing a structure of a terminal accordingto the fourth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 16 is a flow chart showing operation according to the fourthexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing a structure of a transfer managementserver according to a fifth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing a structure of a system according tothe fifth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 19 is a flow chart showing operation according to the fifthexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 20 is a block diagram showing a structure of a system according toa sixth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 21 is a block diagram showing a structure of a terminal accordingto the sixth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 22 is a flow chart showing operation according to the sixthexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 23 is a block diagram showing a structure of a system according toa seventh exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 24 is a block diagram showing a structure of a transfer managementserver according to the seventh exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 25 is a flow chart showing operation according to the seventhexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 26 is a block diagram showing a structure of a system according toan eighth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 27 is a block diagram showing a structure of a service serveraccording to the eighth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 28 is a block diagram showing a structure of a transfer managementserver according to the eighth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 29 is a diagram showing a specific example of session correlationinformation according to the eighth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 30 is a diagram showing a specific example of notificationdestination information according to the eighth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 31 is a flow chart showing operation according to the eighthexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 32 is a flow chart showing operation according to the eighthexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 33 is a block diagram showing a structure of a system according toa ninth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 34 is a block diagram showing a structure of a transfer managementserver according to the ninth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 35 is a diagram showing a specific example of terminal changeinformation according to the ninth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 36 is a flow chart showing operation according to the ninthexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 37 is a block diagram showing a structure of a system according toa tenth exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 38 is a block diagram showing a structure of a system according toan eleventh exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 39 is a block diagram showing a structure of a transfer managementserver according to the eleventh exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 40 is a block diagram showing an example of a hardware structure ofa terminal according to the present exemplary embodiment of the presentinvention.

EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENT

Next, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be detailedwith reference to the drawings.

First Exemplary Embodiment

With reference to FIG. 1, a system according to a first exemplaryembodiment of the present invention includes one or a plurality ofservice servers 21 to 2 n which provide various kinds of services on anetwork including the Internet, terminals 3 a and 3 b for a user toaccess the service servers 21 to 2 n and receive service provision and atransfer management server 10 which manages transfer of service betweenthe terminals 3 a and 3 b.

In FIG. 1, description will be made with the terminal 3 a as atransferring source terminal for use by a user to first receiveprovision of service and with the terminal 3 b as a transferringdestination terminal to which the user thereafter transfers the service.

Further with reference to FIG. 2, the terminal 3 a and the terminal 3 beach include one or a plurality of client applications 301 to 30 n whichconnect to the service servers 21 to 2 n to provide a user with variouskinds of services, a terminal ID storage unit 311 which holds a terminalID (identification information) applied to each terminal for unitarilyidentifying a terminal, and a service transfer management unit 312 whichexecutes processing of transferring service between the terminals.

In a case of service using a Web browser such as on-line shop on Web, aWeb server (Web site) is equivalent to the service servers 21 to 2 n anda Web browser (and contents realizing on-line shop) is equivalent to theclient applications 301 to 30 n. When a plurality of Web servers (Websites) are simultaneously used on one terminal, a Web browser (andcontents) displaying each Web site is considered to be each independentclient application for convenience' sake.

Structure of the service servers 21 to 2 n is shown in FIG. 3. Theservice servers 21 to 2 n include service applications 201 to 20 n whichprovide various kinds of services on the network, and a sessioninformation storage unit 211.

While shown in FIG. 3 is an example where the service servers 21 to 2 neach comprise one of the service applications 201 to 20 n, each of theservice servers 21 to 2 n may include one or a plurality of serviceapplications.

Structure of the transfer management server 10 is shown in FIG. 4. Thetransfer management server 10 includes a session correlation informationstorage unit 111, a terminal change information storage unit 112 and atransfer management unit (transfer management application) 113.

In the structures of the terminals 3 a and 3 b shown in FIG. 2, theservice servers 21 to 2 n shown in FIG. 3 and the transfer managementserver 10 shown in FIG. 4, characteristic components related to thepresent exemplary embodiment are illustrated and no illustration is madeof other components commonly provided as a terminal and a server.

With respect to the above-described components of the terminals 3 a and3 b, the service servers 21 to 2 n and the transfer management server10, their functions will be described in the following.

In the service servers 21 to 2 n, the service applications 201 to 20 nfor providing each service operate respectively.

The client applications 301 to 30 n operative on the transferring sourceterminal 3 a provide service to a user while appropriately communicatingwith the service servers 21 to 2 n based on user's operation (connectiondestinations of the client applications 301 to 30 n are assumed to bethe service servers 21 to 2 n, respectively. This is also the case inthe following).

The service transfer management unit 312 of the transferring sourceterminal 3 a executes processing of transferring service betweenterminals by obtaining the other terminal's terminal ID throughcommunication with the service transfer management unit 312 of thetransferring destination terminal 3 b and transmitting the obtainedterminal ID and its own terminal ID to the transfer management unit 113of the transfer management server 10 to notify the unit of servicetransfer.

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10holds, in the session correlation information storage unit 111, sessioncorrelation information 901 which correlates session information to beused by a service application with a terminal ID.

Description will be here made of a typical example of a method ofholding session information and session correlation information.

As shown in FIG. 7, in the session information storage units 211 of theservice servers 21 and 2 n, session information 902 and sessioninformation 903 to which a session ID is applied are stored.

As shown in FIG. 5, the transfer management unit 113 of the transfermanagement server 10 stores a set of a session ID, a terminal ID and anapplication ID for identifying a service server in the sessioncorrelation information storage unit 111 as the session correlationinformation 901.

Using these information enables the service servers 21 and 2 n (theservice applications 201 to 20 n) to restore session information fromthe terminal ID. In the example shown in FIG. 7, for example, whenconnection is made from the terminal 3 a to the service server 21, theservice server 21 transmits its own application ID (AID: 1) and aterminal ID (TID: 100) to the transfer management server 10. From thetransfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10, asession ID (SID: 1230) corresponding to these application ID andterminal ID is returned based on the session correlation information 901stored in the session correlation information storage unit 111. Thisallows the service server 21 to restore correct session information.

When a user further executes operation of transferring service from thetransferring source terminal 3 a to the transferring destinationterminal 3 b, a change of the terminal ID is recorded in the terminalchange information storage unit 112 of the transfer management server10. In the example of terminal change information 904 shown in FIG. 6,change from the terminal ID (TID: 100) to the terminal ID (TID: 100) isrecorded in the terminal change information storage unit 112.

When connection from the transferring destination terminal 3 b to theservice server 2 n, for example, is executed through this operation, theservice server 21 transmits its own application ID (AID: 1) and aterminal ID (TID: 101) of the terminal 3 b to the transfer managementserver 10. From the transfer management server 10, a session ID (SID:1230) corresponding thereto is returned based on the session correlationinformation 901 and the terminal change information 904. This enablesthe service server 2 n to restore correct session information even aftertransferring of the service between the terminals.

During operation of transferring service between terminals, a part ofthe terminal ID of the session correlation information 901 may bedirectly rewritten in place of recording such terminal changeinformation 904 as described above by the transfer management server 10(in the above-described example, the TID: 100 of the session correlationinformation 901 is rewritten into the TID: 101). In this case, it willbe unnecessary to provide the transfer management server 10 with theterminal change information storage unit 112.

Operation of the First Exemplary Embodiment

Next, with reference to FIG. 1 through FIG. 7 and the flow chart of FIG.8, detailed description will be made of the entire operation of thepresent exemplary embodiment.

First, when a user operates the terminal 3 a to start one of clientapplications (assumed to be the client application 301 here) (Step S101in FIG. 8), the client application 301 transmits a connection request tothe service server 21 with a terminal ID (TID: 100) as an argument (StepS102).

For obtaining a session ID corresponding to the transmitted terminal ID(TID: 100) and its own application ID (AID: 1), the service server 21having received the connection request connects to the transfermanagement server 10 to inquire the transfer management unit 113 of thecorresponding session ID (Step S103). Since connection to the serviceserver 21 of the terminal 3 a is the first and a session ID is yet to begenerated here, the transfer management unit 113 of the transfermanagement server 10 returns to the service server 21 a response that nocorresponding session ID exists (Step S104).

Then, the service server 21 newly generates such a session ID indicatedon the first line of the session information 902 shown in FIG. 7 (StepS105). The service server 21 further requests the transfer managementserver 10 for the registration of the generated session ID (SID: 1230)so as to be correlated with an application ID and a terminal ID (StepS106).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10receives the session ID (SID: 1230), the application ID and the terminalID from the service server 21 and registers them as the sessioncorrelation information 901 in the session correlation informationstorage unit 111 (Step S107). Furthermore, the transfer management unit113 of the transfer management server 10 returns a notification ofregistration completion of the session correlation information to theservice server 21 (Step S108).

Thereafter, the service server 21 executes processing necessary forservice provision, stores session information which will be necessary inthe future as required in the session information storage unit 211 (StepS109) and lastly, returns a response together with the session ID (SID:1230) to the terminal 3 a (Step S110). The terminal 3 a executes suchprocessing as screen display for receiving provision of service based onthe response.

The user further operates the terminal 3 a and when a need of connectionto the service server 21 again arises, connects to the service server 21with the session ID (SID: 1230) as an argument (Step S111). The serviceserver 21 reads session information corresponding to the session ID fromthe session information storage unit 211 (Step S112) and executesnecessary processing to return a response to the terminal 3 a.

As operation to follow, execute the processing of Steps S111, S112 andS113. When a user activates other client application, the sameprocessing as that of Steps 101 to S113 will be repeated with respect tothe activated application.

Subsequently, description will be made of operation executed whentransferring the service used by the terminal 3 a to the transferringdestination terminal 3 b.

First, the user operates the terminal 3 a as the transferring source toexecute service transferring operation (Step S114 in FIG. 9). Then, theservice transfer management unit 312 of the transferring source terminal3 a communicates with the service transfer management unit 312 of theterminal 3 b as the transferring destination to obtain the terminal ID(TID: 101) of the terminal 3 b as the transferring destination (StepsS115 and S116).

Then, the service transfer management unit 312 of the terminal 3 anotifies the transfer management server 10 of the service transfer withthe obtained terminal ID (TID: 101) of the terminal 3 b as thetransferring destination and its terminal ID (TID: 100) as arguments(Step S117).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10records, in the terminal change information storage unit 112, that theservice is transferred from the terminal 3 a (TID: 100) to the terminal3 b (TID: 101) as the terminal change information 904 (Step S118) andreturns a notification of recording completion to the terminal 3 a (StepS119).

Thereafter, when the user operates the terminal 3 b as the transferringdestination to activate the client application 301, for example (StepS120), the client application 301 makes a connection request (servicerequest) to the service server 21 with the terminal ID (TID:101) as anargument (Step S121).

In order to obtain a session ID corresponding to the transmittedterminal ID (TID: 101) and its own application ID (AID: 1), the serviceserver 21 connects to the transfer management server 10 (Step S122).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10refers to the session correlation information 901 (a set of AID: 1, TID:100 and SID: 1230) and the terminal change information 904 that theservice is transferred from the terminal of the TID: 100 to the terminalof TID: 101 to determine that a session ID related to AID: 1 and TID:101 is SID: 1230 and returns the session ID (SID: 1230) to the serviceserver 21 (Step S123).

Thereafter, in order to execute processing necessary for serviceprovision, the service server 21 reads session information correspondingto the obtained session ID from the session information storage unit 211(Step S124) and lastly returns a response together with the session ID(SID: 1230) to the terminal 3 b (Step S125). The terminal 3 b executesnecessary processing such as screen display based on the response.

The user further operates the terminal 3 b and when a need forconnection to the service server 21 again arises, connects the terminalto the service server 21 with the above-described session ID as anargument (Step S126). The service server 21 reads session informationcorresponding to the session ID (Step S127) and after executingnecessary processing, transmits a response to the terminal 3 b (StepS128).

As operation hereafter, repeat the processing of Steps S126, S127 andS128. When the user starts other application on the terminal 3 b, thesame processing as that of Steps S120 to S128 will be executed for thestarted application.

Although at Steps S111 and S126, the terminal 3 a as the transferringsource and the terminal 3 b as the transferring destination transmit asession ID in the second and the following connection requests to theservice server 21, a terminal ID may be transmitted each time in placeof the session ID. In this case, although the service server 21 at StepsS110 and S125 needs no transmission of a session ID to the terminal 3 aor the terminal 3 b, it is in place necessary to execute the sameprocessing as that of Steps S122 and S123 in order to obtain a sessionID from the terminal ID before the service server 21 executes processingof reading session information at Steps S112 and S127.

The communication at Steps S115 and S116 between the service transfermanagement unit 312 of the terminal 3 a as the transferring source andthe service transfer management unit 312 of the terminal 3 b as thetransferring destination may be wireless communication such as wirelessLAN or infrared communication or wired connection by a cable. At thetime of communication, the terminals may execute authentication by apassword or the like in order to confirm that the other party is aproper terminal.

In addition, although the terminal 3 a as the transferring sourcenotifies the transfer management server 10 of the transfer at Steps S116to S119, the terminal 3 b as the transferring destination may executenotification. For this arrangement, the terminal 3 b as the transferringdestination needs to obtain a terminal ID of the terminal 3 a as thetransferring source at Step S115.

Moreover, although at Step S120, the user starts the client applicationof the terminal, the client application used by the terminal 3 a as thetransferring source may be automatically started at the terminal 3 b asthe transferring destination.

Effects of the First Exemplary Embodiment

Next, effects of the first exemplary embodiment will be described.

Structuring, as a unit which executes processing of transferring servicebetween the terminals 3 a and 3 b, the transfer management server 10 andthe service transfer management unit 312 of the terminals 3 a and 3 b tobe independent of the services 21-2 n eliminates the need of executingoperation of transferring a plurality of services used on the terminal 3a as a transferring source to other terminal as a transferringdestination on a service basis, resulting in completing the processingby one operation.

Since the service transferring function commonly required fortransferring service can be separated from the service application ofeach of the services 21 to 2 n, a service application development burdencan be reduced.

Although when service transfer is realized by directly transferring asession ID of the terminal 3 a as a transferring source to otherterminal 3 b as a transferring destination, a service server (serviceapplication) side is not allowed to recognize service transfer of theterminal to have a possibility of failing to maintain service securityaccording to the related art, the present exemplary embodiment enablessecurity in transferring service between terminals to be maintainedbecause the service server side is allowed to recognize service transferbetween the terminals.

Even under an environment in which it is difficult to dispose a gatewaybetween a service server and a terminal, service transfer can berealized with ease. In a case, for example, where a network between aservice server and a terminal is under the management of a communicationservice provider such as a cellular phone network, service transfer canbe realized. The reason is that it is unnecessary to dispose a specialgateway for transferring service between a service server and aterminal.

In addition, even when a plurality of terminals are connected to anetwork as in a case of a cellular phone and a personal computer,service transfer can be realized. The reason is that the servicetransfer management unit and the service server each only need tocommunicate with the transfer management server and service transfer isnot dependent on a network path between the service server and theterminal.

Moreover, even when executing service transfer between terminals in awide area network, a bottleneck is unlikely to occur on communication.The reason is that communication between the service server and theterminal passes through no specific device.

Second Exemplary Embodiment

Next, a second exemplary embodiment of the present invention will bedetailed with reference to the drawings.

A system according to the second exemplary embodiment has a structurewhich includes the transfer management server 10, one or a plurality ofservice servers 21 to 2 n, a terminal 4 a as a transferring source and aterminal 4 b as a transferring destination, which is different from thefirst exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1 only in the structures of thetransferring source terminal 4 a and the transferring destinationterminal 4 b.

With reference to FIG. 10, the terminal 4 a as a transferring source andthe terminal 4 b as a transferring destination in the second exemplaryembodiment each include client applications 301 to 30 n which connect tothe service servers 21-2 n to provide a user with service, service datastorage units 321 to 32 n for holding, in a terminal, service data to beused when each client application provides service, a terminal IDstorage unit 311 which holds an ID applied to each terminal, a servicetransfer management unit 312 which executes processing of transferringservice between the terminals, and a service data erasing unit 331 whicherases service data stored in the service data storage units 321 to 32n.

Similarly to the first exemplary embodiment, in a case of service usinga Web browser, the Web browser is equivalent to the client applications301 to 30 n. The service data held in the service data storage units 321to 32 n includes information related to products in a shopping cart in acase of on-line-shopping service and information related to items ownedin a case of on-line game, for example, and includes at least a sessionID in any case.

In the present exemplary embodiment, the client applications 301 to 30 noperative on the terminals 4 a and 4 b read and write data stored intheir corresponding service data storage units 321 to 32 n, as well asproviding a user with service while appropriately communicating with theservice servers 21 to 2 n.

The service transfer management unit 312 of each of the terminals 4 aand 4 b communicates with the service transfer management unit 312 of aterminal as a transfer destination to obtain a terminal ID of the otherparty and further transmits the obtained terminal ID and its ownterminal ID to the transfer management server 10 to notify servicetransfer, thereby executing processing of transferring service betweenterminals.

Operation of the Second Exemplary Embodiment

Next, entire operation of the present exemplary embodiment will bedetailed with reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 10, FIG. 7 and the flow chart ofFIG. 11. The terminals 3 a and 3 b in FIG. 1 and FIG. 7 are assumed tobe read as the terminals 4 a and 4 b.

Since the procedure of first operating the terminal 4 a to use serviceby a user is the same as that of the first exemplary embodiment shown inFIG. 8, no description will be made thereof.

Here, description will be made of operation to be executed when serviceused by the terminal 4 a is transferred to the terminal 4 b as atransferring destination with reference to FIG. 11.

The user operates the terminal 4 a as the transferring source to executeservice transferring operation (Step S201 in FIG. 11). Then, the servicetransferring management unit 312 of the terminal 4 a as a transferringsource communicates with the service transfer management unit 312 of theterminal 4 b as a transferring destination to obtain a terminal ID (TID:101) of the terminal 4 b as a transferring destination (Steps S202 andS203).

Then, the service transfer management unit 312 of the terminal 4 anotifies the transfer management server 10 of service transfer with theobtained terminal ID (TID: 101) of the terminal 4 b as the transferringdestination and its own terminal ID (TID: 101) as arguments (Step S204).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10records, in the terminal change information storage unit 112,information that the service is transferred from the terminal 4 a (TID:100) to the terminal 4 b (TID: 101) as the terminal change information904 (Step S205) and returns a notification of recording completion tothe terminal 3 a (Step S206).

Furthermore, the service data erasing unit 331 of the transferringsource terminal 4 a operates all the service data storage units 321 to32 n of the transferring source terminal 4 a to erase the stored servicedata (Step S207).

In place of directly operating the service data storage units 321 to 32n to erase service data by the service data erasing unit 331, thefollowing method will be possible. For example, the service data erasingunit 331 requests the client applications 301 to 30 n for erasingservice data. Then, the client applications 301 to 30 n operate theservice data storage units 321 to 32 n corresponding to the respectiverequests to erase the service data.

Thereafter, the user operates the terminal 4 b as the transferringdestination to start the client application 301, for example (StepS208), and the operation to follow is the same as that after Step S121in FIG. 9 showing the procedure of the first exemplary embodiment,detailed description of which will be therefore omitted.

Effects of the Second Exemplary Embodiment

In addition to the above-described effects of the first exemplaryembodiment, the second exemplary embodiment obtains the followingeffect.

When a user operates the terminal 4 a as a transferring source bymistake to continue the use after service transferring operation, asession ID is transmitted from the client application to the serviceservers 21 to 2 n and the service server executes any of the processingto change a state of the service server side. When the state of theservice servers 21 to 2 n is thus changed from a time point of executionof the service transferring operation, the terminal 4 b as thetransferring destination might fail to normally continue the service.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, however, because servicedata is erased on the terminal 4 a as the transferring source when theuser executes service transferring operation, no session ID will betransmitted to the service server even when the user tries to continueuse of the service at the terminal as a transferring source by mistakeafter service transferring operation. State of the service server sidewill therefore have no change to enable the terminal 4 b as thetransferring destination to normally continue service.

Third Exemplary Embodiment

Next, a third exemplary embodiment of the present invention will bedetailed with reference to the drawings.

A system according to the third exemplary embodiment has a structurewhich includes the transfer management server 10, one or a plurality ofservice servers 21 to 2 n, a terminal 5 a as a transferring source and aterminal 5 b as a transferring destination, which is different from thesecond exemplary embodiment only in the structures of the transferringsource terminal 5 a and the transferring destination terminal 5 b.

With reference to FIG. 12, the terminal 5 a as a transferring source andthe terminal 5 b as a transferring destination in the third exemplaryembodiment each further include a service data restructuring unit 332 ascompared with the terminals 4 a and 4 b in the second exemplaryembodiment.

In the present exemplary embodiment, when a user starts any of theclient applications 301 to 30 n at the transferring destination terminal5 b after the service is transferred from the transferring sourceterminal 5 a to the transferring destination terminal 5 b, the servicedata restructuring unit 332 of the transferring destination terminal 5 breconstructs service data stored in the corresponding service datastorage unit among the service data storage units 321 to 32 n.

Operation of the Third Exemplary Embodiment

Operation of the present exemplary embodiment will be detailed withreference to the flow chart of FIG. 13.

Since the procedure of first operating the transferring source terminal5 a to use service by the user is the same as that of the firstexemplary embodiment described with reference to FIG. 8, no descriptionwill be made thereof.

At the time of transferring service used at the terminal 5 a to theterminal 5 b as a transferring destination, the user operates thetransferring source terminal 5 a to execute service transferringoperation (Step S301 in FIG. 13). The procedure hereafter until start ofone of client applications (e.g. the client application 301) at thetransferring destination terminal 5 b by the user (Step S308) is thesame as the procedure (Steps S201 to S208) of the second exemplaryembodiment shown in FIG. 11.

When the user starts the client application 301, the service datarestructuring unit 332 of the transferring destination terminal 5 brequests the service server 21 for data necessary for restructuringservice data used by the transferring source terminal 5 a with its ownterminal ID (TID: 101) as an argument (Step S309).

The service server 21 obtains a session ID from the transfer managementserver 10 (Steps S310 and S311) and while writing and reading sessioninformation as required (Step S312), returns information necessary forrestructuring service data of the service data storage unit 321 of thetransferring destination terminal 5 b to the transferring destinationterminal 5 b (Step S313).

The service data restructuring unit 332 of the transferring destinationterminal 5 b executes restructuring of service data of the service datastorage unit 321 based on the data returned from the service server 21(Step S314). Since operation to be executed after the restructuring iscompleted is the same as the operation after Step S121 or Step S126 inFIG. 9 which shows the procedure of the first exemplary embodiment, nodetailed description will be made thereof.

In place of directly restructuring the service data in the service datastorage units 321 to 32 n by the service data restructuring unit 332,the service data restructuring unit 332 may request the clientapplications 301 to 30 n for restructuring the service data and theclient applications 301 to 30 n may reconstruct the service data in theservice data storage units 321 to 32 n.

Effects of the Third Exemplary Embodiment

In addition to the above-described effects of the first exemplaryembodiment, the third exemplary embodiment obtains the following effect.

The service data storage unit of the terminal 5 b as a transferringdestination immediately after service transferring operation remains atan initial state. It is therefore necessary for a client application ora service application of a service server to constantly seize the stateof the service data storage unit of a terminal and execute restructuringas required. Because service data of the transferring destinationterminal 5 b is automatically reconstructed by the service datarestructuring unit, the present exemplary embodiment prevents processingof the client application or the service application of the serviceserver from becoming complicated.

Fourth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, a fourth exemplary embodiment of the present invention will bedetailed with reference to the drawings.

With reference to FIG. 14, a system according to the fourth exemplaryembodiment has a structure which includes the transfer management server10, one or a plurality of service servers 21 to 2 n, a terminal 6 a as atransferring source and a terminal 6 b as a transferring destination,and an ID storage device 7. The system according to the fourth exemplaryembodiment is different from the first exemplary embodiment shown inFIG. 1 only in the structures of the transferring source terminal 6 aand the transferring destination terminal 6 b, and employing the IDstorage device 7.

With reference to FIG. 15, the terminal 6 a as a transferring source andthe terminal 6 b as a transferring destination in the fourth exemplaryembodiment each include the client applications 301 to 30 n whichconnect to the service servers 21-2 n to provide a user with service,the terminal ID storage unit 311 which holds an ID for each terminal,the service transfer management unit 312 which executes processing oftransferring service between the terminals, and an external ID readingunit 341 which reads an ID from the ID storage device 7 outside theterminal.

In the present exemplary embodiment, the service transfer managementunit 312 of the terminals 6 a and 6 b controls the external ID readingunit 341 to read an ID stored in the ID storage device 7 existingoutside the terminals 6 a and 6 b, as well as communicating with thetransfer management server 10 to execute processing of transferringservice between the terminals.

The ID storage device 7 and the external ID reading unit 341 here arefor use in correlating the terminal 6 as a transferring source and theterminal 6 b as a transferring destination, which can be realized, forexample, by an IC card on which an ID not overlapping with other ID isrecorded and an IC card reader for reading the card. The ID storagedevice 7 and the external ID reading unit 341 can be realized also by anID card to which a bar code representing non-overlapping ID is attachedand a bar code reader for reading the card or the like. As an example ofthe IC card and the IC card reader described formally, used is, forexample, a method of exchanging a SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) cardof a cellular phone between two cellular phones, for example. In thiscase, the IC card reader (external ID reading unit 341) is provided in aterminal which is a cellular phone, and SIM is equivalent to the IDstorage device 7.

Operation of the Fourth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, entire operation of the present exemplary embodiment will bedetailed with reference to FIG. 14, FIG. 15, FIG. 7 and the flow chartof FIG. 16. The terminals 3 a and 3 b in FIG. 7 are assumed to be readas the terminals 6 a and 6 b.

Since the procedure of first operating the terminal 6 a to use serviceby a user is the same as that of the first exemplary embodiment shown inFIG. 8, no detailed description will be made thereof.

At the time of transferring service used by the terminal 6 a to theterminal 6 b as a transferring destination, the user operates theterminal 6 a as a transferring source to execute the first servicetransferring operation (Step S401 in FIG. 16). At this time, designatethe terminal 6 a as the transferring source.

The user operates the ID storage device 7 and the external ID readingunit 341 of the transferring source terminal 6 a to execute operation ofreading an external ID (assumed to be EID: 4001) from the ID storagedevice 7 (Step S402). Then, the service transfer management unit 312 ofthe transferring source terminal 6 a notifies the transfer managementserver 10 of the transfer of the service and the terminal ID of thetransferring source with its own terminal ID (TID: 100) and the readexternal ID (EID: 4001) as arguments (Step S403).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10records a pair of the terminal ID (TID: 100) and the external ID (EID:4001) in the terminal change information storage unit 112 (Step S404) toreturn a notification of recording completion to the terminal 6 a (StepS405).

Thereafter, the user operates the transferring destination terminal 6 bto execute the second service transferring operation (Step S406). Atthis time, designate the terminal in question as a transferringdestination.

The user operates the same ID storage device 7 and ID reading unit 341of the transferring terminal 6 b as those described above to executeoperation of reading the external ID (EID: 4001) from the ID storagedevice 7 (Step S407). Then, the service transfer management unit 312 ofthe transferring destination terminal 6 b notifies the transfermanagement server 10 of the transfer of the service and the terminal IDof the transferring destination with its own terminal ID (TID: 101) andthe read external ID (EID: 4001) as arguments (Step S408).

Since the pair of the external ID (EID: 4001) and TID: 100 is alreadyrecorded in the terminal change information storage unit 112, thetransfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10determines that the operation of transferring the service from TID: 100to TID: 101 is executed and records, in the terminal change informationstorage unit 112, the pair of the terminal ID (TID: 101) and theexternal ID (EID: 4001) so as to correspond to the pair of the externalID (EID: 4001) and TID: 100 (Steps S409 and S410).

Thereafter, the user operates the transferring destination terminal 6 bto start the client application 301, for example (Step S411), and sinceoperation hereafter is the same as the operation executed after StepS121 in FIG. 9 which shows the procedure of the first exemplaryembodiment, no detailed description will be made thereof.

While in the above-described first and second service transferringoperation, the user is assumed to also designate a terminal as atransferring source or a transferring destination, the user'sdesignation can be omitted by determining, for example, that a terminalwhich first reads an external ID from the ID storage device 7 tocommunicate with the transfer management server 10 is a terminal as atransferring source and a terminal which later reads the external ID tocommunicate with the transfer management server 10 is a terminal as atransferring destination.

Effects of the Fourth Exemplary Embodiment

In addition to the above-described effects of the first exemplaryembodiment, the fourth exemplary embodiment obtains the followingeffect.

In the fourth exemplary embodiment, as long as the terminals 6 a and 6 bcomprise the external ID reading unit 341 such as an IC card reader or acamera, transfer of a plurality of services between the terminals can becompleted by one operation even without a communication unit whichexecutes interactive communication between terminals such as wirelessLAN or infrared communication.

Fifth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, a fifth exemplary embodiment of the present invention will bedetailed with reference to the drawings.

A system according to the fifth exemplary embodiment has a structurewhich includes the transfer management server 10, one or a plurality ofservice servers 21 to 2 n, a terminal 7 a as a transferring source and aterminal 7 b as a transferring destination. The system according to thefifth exemplary embodiment is different from the first exemplaryembodiment shown in FIG. 1 in notifying a transfer from the terminal 7 aas a transferring source not to the transfer management server 10 but tothe service server and in failing to comprise the terminal changeinformation storage unit 112 in the transfer management server 10.

Since the structures of the terminal 7 a as a transferring source andthe terminal 7 b as a transferring destination and the structure of theservice servers 21 to 2 n are the same as those of the first exemplaryembodiment, no description will be made thereof. As shown in FIG. 17,the transfer management server 10 comprises the session correlationinformation storage unit 111 and the transfer management unit 113.

In the present exemplary embodiment, the service transfer managementunit 312 of the terminals 7 a and 7 b communicates with the servicetransfer management unit 312 of a terminal as a transferring destinationto obtain a terminal ID of the other party and transmits the obtainedterminal ID and its own terminal ID to the service servers 21 to 2 n tonotify service transfer, thereby realizing service transfer between theterminals.

Operation of the Fifth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, entire operation of the present exemplary embodiment will bedetailed with reference to FIG. 7, FIG. 18 and the flow chart of FIG.19.

Since the procedure of first operating the terminal 7 a to use serviceby a user is the same as that of the first exemplary embodiment shown inFIG. 8, no description will be made thereof.

Here, description will be made of operation to be executed when serviceused by the terminal 7 a is transferred to the terminal 7 b as atransferring destination with reference to FIGS. 18 and 19.

First, the user operates the terminal 7 a as the transferring source toexecute service transferring operation (Step S501 in FIG. 19). Then, theservice transfer management unit 312 of the terminal 7 a as atransferring source communicates with the service transfer managementunit 312 of the terminal 7 b as a transferring destination to obtain aterminal ID (TID: 101) of the terminal 7 b as the transferringdestination (Steps S502 and S503).

Then, the service transfer management unit 312 of the terminal 7 anotifies service transfer to the service server 21 being used with theobtained terminal ID (TID: 101) of the terminal 3 b as the transferringdestination and its own terminal ID (TID: 100) as arguments (Step S504).As shown in FIG. 18, in the present exemplary embodiment, servicetransfer is not notified to the transfer management server 10 from theterminal 7 a as the transferring source but is directly notified to theservice server 21.

The service server 21 returns, to the terminal 7 a, a notification thata notification of service transfer from the terminal 7 a (TID: 100) tothe terminal 7 b (TID: 101) is received (Step S505).

Thereafter, when the user operates the terminal 7 b as the transferringdestination to start the client application 301, for example (StepS506), the client application 301 makes a connection request to theservice server 21 with the terminal ID (TID: 101) as an argument (StepS507).

Since the service server 21 is notified that as to the transmittedterminal ID (TID: 101), the terminal ID of the terminal 7 a as of beforetransferring is TID: 100, it connects to the transfer management server10 in order to obtain a session ID corresponding to its own applicationID (AID: 1) and the terminal ID (TID: 100) (Step S508).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10refers to the session correlation information 901 (set of AID: 1, TID:100, SID: 1230) to determine that a session ID related to AID: 1 andTID: 100 is SID: 1230 and returns the session ID (SID: 1230) to theservice server 21 (Step S509).

Thereafter, for executing processing necessary for providing service,the service server 21 reads session information corresponding to theobtained session ID from the session information storage unit 211 (StepS510) and lastly returns a response together with the session ID (SID:1230) to the terminal 7 b (Step S511). The terminal 7 b executes suchnecessary processing as screen display based on the response.

Operation to be executed when the user further operates the terminal 7 bto cause another need for connection to the service server 21 is thesame as that after Step S126 in FIG. 10 showing the procedure of thefirst exemplary embodiment, detailed description of which will betherefore omitted.

Although the terminal 7 a as the transferring source notifies theservice server of the transfer at Step S504, the terminal 7 b as thetransferring destination may execute notification. For this arrangement,the terminal 7 b as the transferring destination needs to obtain theterminal ID of the terminal 7 a as the transferring source at Steps S502and 503.

Effects of the Fifth Exemplary Embodiment

According to the fifth exemplary embodiment, it is possible to obtainthe same effects as those by the above-described first exemplaryembodiment, as well as eliminating the need of the terminal changeinformation storage unit 112 on the transfer management server 10 sideto simplify the structure of the transfer management server 10.

In addition, since it is designed to notify the service servers 21 to 2n of service transfer, the service servers 21 to 2 n side is allowed tomore clearly recognize service transfer between terminals, so thatsecurity in service transfer between the terminals can be maintained.

Sixth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, a sixth exemplary embodiment of the present invention will bedetailed with reference to the drawings.

With reference to FIG. 20, a system according to the sixth exemplaryembodiment has a structure which includes the transfer management server10, one or a plurality of service servers 21 to 2 n, a terminal 8 a as atransferring source and a terminal 8 b as a transferring destination.The system according to the sixth exemplary embodiment is different fromthe first exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in the structures of theterminal 8 a as a transferring source and the terminal 8 b as atransferring destination.

With reference to FIG. 21, the transferring source terminal 8 a and thetransferring destination terminal 8 b in the sixth exemplary embodimenteach include the client applications 301 to 30 n which connect to theservice servers 21-2 n to provide a user with service, the terminal IDstorage unit 311 which holds an ID applied to each terminal, the servicetransfer management unit 312 which executes processing of transferringservice between the terminals, and a temporary key generation unit 351for generating a temporary key to be exchanged between a transferringsource terminal and a transferring destination terminal.

In the present exemplary embodiment, the service transfer managementunit 312 of the terminals 8 a and 8 b controls the temporary keygeneration unit 351 to generate a temporary key and exchanges thegenerated temporary key between the terminals 8 a and 8 b, as well ascommunicating with the transfer management server 10 to executeprocessing of transferring service between the terminals.

Since the temporary key generated by the temporary key generation unit351 is here for use in correlating the terminal 8 a as a transferringsource and the terminal 8 b as a transferring destination, it isdesirably a key, for example, with an enough length and without biaswhich is generated by using a random number generator or the like so asnot to overlap with a temporary key generated in other servicetransferring. Thus correlating terminals by using a temporary key isequivalent, in the fourth exemplary embodiment, to reading an IDrecorded in the ID storage device 7 by the respective external IDreading units 341 of the terminal 6 a as a transferring source and theterminal 6 b as a transferring destination and correlating the terminal6 a and the terminal 6 b by the transfer management server 10.

Operation of the Sixth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, entire operation of the present exemplary embodiment will bedetailed with reference to FIG. 20, FIG. 21, FIG. 7 and the flow chartof FIG. 22. The terminals 3 a and 3 b in FIG. 7 are assumed to be readas the terminals 8 a and 8 b.

Since the procedure of first operating the terminal 8 a to use serviceby a user is the same as that of the first exemplary embodiment shown inFIG. 8, no detailed description will be made thereof.

At the time of transferring service used by the terminal 8 a to theterminal 8 b as a transferring destination, the user operates theterminal 8 a as a transferring source to execute service transferringoperation (Step S601 in FIG. 22). Then, the service transfer managementunit 312 of the terminal 8 a as the transferring source controls thetemporary key generation unit 351 to generate a temporary key (assumedto be Key: XYZ) (Step S602) and further communicates with the servicetransfer management unit 312 of the terminal 8 b as the transferringdestination to transmit the generated temporary key (Steps S603 andS604).

Then, the service transfer management unit 312 of the terminal 8 adesignates the terminal 8 a to be a transferring source and transmitsthe generated temporary key to the transfer management server 10 (StepS605).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10records a pair of the terminal ID (TID: 100) and the temporary key (Key:XYZ) in the terminal change information storage unit 112 (Step S605) toreturn a notification of recording completion to the terminal 8 a (StepS606).

After receiving the temporary key from the terminal 8 a as atransferring source, the service transfer management unit 312 of theterminal 8 b as a transferring destination designates the terminal 8 bto be a transferring destination and transmits the generated temporarykey to the transfer management server 10 (Step S607).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 10determines that the operation of transferring the service from TID: 100to TID: 101 is executed from the fact that the pair of the temporary key(Key: XYZ) and TID: 100 is already recorded in the terminal changeinformation storage unit 112 and records the pair of the terminal ID(TID: 101) and the temporary key (Key: XYZ) so as to correspond to thepair of the temporary key (Key: XYZ) and the TID: 100 in the terminalchange information storage unit 112 (Steps S608 and S609).

Thereafter, although the user operates the transferring destinationterminal 8 b to start the client application 301, for example (StepS610), since operation hereafter is the same as the operation executedafter Step S121 in FIG. 9 which shows the procedure of the firstexemplary embodiment, no detailed description will be made thereof.

While the foregoing description is premised on that the terminal 8 a asa transferring source communicates with the transfer management server10 before the terminal 8 b as a transferring destination does, it mightbe possible that the terminal 8 b as a transferring destinationconversely communicates with the transfer management server 10 beforethe terminal 8 a as a transferring source does depending on a conditionof a communication line. Even in such a case, since the terminal 8 a andthe terminal 8 b notify the transfer management server 10 that they area transferring source and a transferring destination, respectively, noeffect will be exerted on the above-described processing of correlatingtwo terminal IDs of a transferring source and a transferring destinationbased on a temporary key.

In addition, while the terminal 8 a as a transferring source is assumedto generate a temporary key (Step S602), the key may be generated by theterminal 8 b as a transferring destination. In this case, no temporarykey is transmitted at Step S603, the terminal 8 b generates a temporarykey between Step S603 and Step S604 and the generated temporary key istransmitted to the terminal 8 a at Step S604.

Moreover, while in the above-described service transferring operation,the user is assumed to operate a terminal as a transferring source tostart service transferring operation, the user might conversely operatea terminal as a transferring destination to start service transferringoperation.

Furthermore, although in the foregoing description, executed at StepsS603 and S604 is only the transmission of a generated temporary key fromthe terminal 8 a as a transferring source to the terminal 8 b as atransferring destination, terminal IDs of the respective terminals maybe exchanged between the terminals at this time. At Steps S605 and S607,other terminal ID may be also transmitted to the transfer managementserver 10. This arrangement enables processing of collating the terminalas a transferring source and the terminal as a transferring destinationto be executed reliably at Step S608.

Effects of the Sixth Exemplary Embodiment

In addition to the above-described effects of the first exemplaryembodiment, the sixth exemplary embodiment obtains the following effect.

According to the first exemplary embodiment, after knowing a terminal IDof other user in advance, executing the processing starting at Step S117in FIG. 9 through intentional rewriting of the terminal ID of theterminal ID storage unit 311 or through the use of a modified terminalso as to transmit a false terminal ID to the transfer management server10 by a malicious user enables the malicious user to acquire servicebeing used by the user in question in an unauthorized manner. Accordingto the present exemplary embodiment, since a temporary key is exchangedbetween transferring source and transferring destination terminals andcollated by the transfer management server 10, service acquisition bysuch a manner as described above is impossible to reduce risks insecurity.

Seventh Exemplary Embodiment

Next, a seventh exemplary embodiment of the present invention will bedetailed with reference to the drawings.

With reference to FIG. 23, a system according to the seventh exemplaryembodiment has a structure which includes a transfer management server11, one or a plurality of service servers 21 to 2 n, the terminal 3 a asa transferring source and the terminal 3 b as a transferringdestination. The system according to the seventh exemplary embodiment isdifferent from the first exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in thestructure of the transfer management server 11.

With reference to FIG. 24, the transfer management server 11 accordingto the seventh exemplary embodiment includes the session correlationinformation storage unit 111, the terminal change information storageunit 112, the transfer management unit (transfer management application)113 and a user authentication information storage unit 121. Although theuser authentication information is service provided by the serviceservers 21 to 2 n, which is not related to user authenticationinformation commonly used and which is basically managed by a transfermanagement server independently, it may be the same as userauthentication information used in the above-described service.

In the present exemplary embodiment, at the time of receiving a servicetransfer notification from the terminal 3 a as a transferring source andthe terminal 3 b as a transferring destination, the transfer managementserver 11 requests each terminal for user authentication. Thus executinguser authentication by the same user at both terminals, the terminal 3 aas a transferring source and the terminal 3 b as a transferringdestination are correlated. This is equivalent, in the fourth exemplaryembodiment, to reading an ID recorded in the ID storage device 7 by therespective external ID reading units 341 of the terminal 6 a as atransferring source and the terminal 6 b as a transferring destinationand correlating the terminal 6 a and the terminal 6 b by the transfermanagement server 10.

Operation of the Seventh Exemplary Embodiment

Next, entire operation of the present exemplary embodiment will bedetailed with reference to FIG. 23, FIG. 24, FIG. 7 and the flow chartof FIG. 25. The transfer management server 10 in FIG. 7 is assumed to beread as the transfer management server 11.

Since the procedure of first operating the terminal 3 a to use serviceby a user is the same as that of the first exemplary embodiment shown inFIG. 8, no detailed description will be made thereof.

At the time of transferring service used by the terminal 3 a to theterminal 3 b as a transferring destination, the user operates theterminal 3 a as a transferring source to execute first servicetransferring operation (Step S701 in FIG. 25). At this time, designatethe terminal 3 a in question to be a transferring source.

The service transfer management unit 312 of the terminal 3 a requeststhe user to input user authentication information such as a user ID anda password (Step S702). Upon input of the authentication information,the service transfer management unit 312 of the terminal 3 a as atransferring source notifies the transfer management server 11 ofservice transfer and a terminal ID of the transferring source with itsown terminal ID (TID: 100) and the input user authentication information(user ID and password) as arguments (Step S703).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 11refers to the user authentication information storage unit 121 based onthe user authentication information received from the terminal 3 a toexecute user authentication (Step S704) and when authorized, records theuser ID (UID: taro) and the terminal ID (TID: 100) in the terminalchange information storage unit 112 (Step S705) to return a notificationof recording completion to the terminal 3 a (Step S706).

Thereafter, the user operates the transfer destination terminal 3 b toexecute second service transferring operation (Step S707). At this time,designate the terminal 3 b as a transferring destination.

The service transfer management unit 312 of the terminal 3 b requeststhe user to input user authentication information such as a user ID anda password as is executed in the foregoing (Step S708). Upon input ofthe user authentication information, the service transfer managementunit 312 of the terminal 3 b as a transferring destination notifies thetransfer management server 11 of service transfer and the terminal ID ofthe transferring destination with its own terminal ID (TID: 101) and theinput user authentication information as arguments (Step S709).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 11refers to the user authentication information storage unit 121 toexecute user authentication based on the user authentication informationreceived from the terminal 3 b (Step S710). When authorized, determinethat the operation of transferring the service from TID: 100 to TID: 101is executed from the fact that the pair of UID: taro and TID: 100 isalready recorded in the terminal change information storage unit 112 andrecord the pair of the user ID (UID: taro) and the terminal ID (TID:101) so as to correspond to the pair of the user ID (UID: taro) and theTID: 100 in the terminal change information storage unit 112 (Steps S711and S712).

Thereafter, the user operates the transferring destination terminal 3 bto start the client application 301, for example (Step S713). Sinceoperation hereafter is the same as the operation executed after StepS121 in FIG. 9 which shows the procedure of the first exemplaryembodiment, no detailed description will be made thereof.

While in the foregoing first and second service transferring operation,it is assumed that the user also designates a terminal to be atransferring source or transferring destination terminal, it is possibleto omit user's designation with a terminal which communicates with thetransfer management server 11 first determined as a transferring sourceterminal and a terminal which communicates with the transfer managementserver 11 later determined as a transferring destination terminal.

In addition, while in the foregoing description, connection to thetransfer management server 11 follows input of user authenticationinformation to the transferring source terminal 3 a or the transferringdestination terminal 3 b by the user, the transfer management server 11may request the terminal 3 a or the terminal 3 b to input userauthentication information after the terminal 3 a or the terminal 3 bconnects to the transfer management server 11 similarly to common Webservice.

Effects of the Seventh Exemplary Embodiment

In addition to the above-described effects of the first exemplaryembodiment, the seventh exemplary embodiment obtains the followingeffect.

The seventh exemplary embodiment enables transfer of a plurality ofservices between terminals to be completed by one operation even whenthe terminals 3 a and 3 b fail to have a communication unit whichexecutes interactive communication between terminals such as wirelessLAN or infrared communication, or a special device such as an IC cardreader or a camera.

Eighth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, an eighth exemplary embodiment of the present invention will bedetailed with reference to the drawings.

With reference to FIG. 26, the system according to the eighth exemplaryembodiment has a structure which includes a transfer management server12, one or a plurality of service servers 91 to 9 n, a terminal 3 a as atransferring source and a terminal 3 b as a transferring destination.The system according to the eighth exemplary embodiment is differentfrom the first exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1 in the structures ofthe transfer management server 12 and the service servers 91 to 9 n.

With reference to FIG. 27, the service servers 91 to 9 n according tothe eighth exemplary embodiment each include the service applications201 to 20 n which provide various kinds of services on a network, thesession information storage unit 211, a terminal ID updating unit 221and a session correlation information storage unit 222.

Further with reference to FIG. 28, the transfer management server 12according to the eighth exemplary embodiment includes the transfermanagement unit (transfer management application) 113, a servicetransfer notification unit 131 which notifies the service servers 91 to9 n of service transfer, and a notification destination informationstorage unit 132.

The structures of the service servers 91 to 9 n shown in FIG. 27 and thetransfer management server 12 shown in FIG. 28 represent characteristiccomponents related to the present exemplary embodiment and the remainingcomponents that a common server comprises have no description thereof.

Functions of the above-described components of the service servers 91 to9 n and the transfer management server 12 will be described in thefollowing.

Similarly to the service servers 21 to 2 n of the first exemplaryembodiment, on the service servers 91 to 9 n, the service applications201 to 20 n for providing each service operate. The session informationstorage unit 211 stores the session information 902 shown in FIG. 7. Thesession correlation information storage unit 222 stores such a pair of aterminal ID (TID) and a session ID (SID) as shown in FIG. 29. Byreferring to the information and the session information 902 stored inthe session information storage unit 211, the service servers 91 to 9 nenable restoration of session information from the terminal ID.

When the user executes operation of transferring service from thetransferring source terminal 3 a to the transferring destinationterminal 3 b, the transfer management unit 113 of the transfermanagement server 12 receives a service transfer notification from theterminal 3 a as a transferring source to notify the service servers 91to 9 n of service transfer through the service transfer notificationunit 131. Address information of the service servers 91 to 9 n to benotified at this time is stored in the notification destinationinformation storage unit 132 in advance. Shown in FIG. 30 is an exampleof address information, in which example the destination information isformed of a pair of an application ID (AID) for identifying a serviceserver and an IP address of a service server. In the present exemplaryembodiment, an application ID is not essential.

Upon receiving a service transfer notification from the transfermanagement server 12, the terminal ID updating unit 221 of the serviceservers 91 to 9 n rewrites a terminal ID of a transferring sourceincluded in session correlation information 911 stored in the sessioncorrelation information storage unit 222 to a terminal ID of atransferring destination.

Although in the present exemplary embodiment, the session correlationinformation 911 and the session information 902 are stored separately, aterminal ID may be included in the session information 902, for example,to omit the session correlation information 911.

Operation of the Eighth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, with reference to FIG. 26 through FIG. 30 and the flow chart ofFIG. 31, detailed description will be made of the entire operation ofthe present exemplary embodiment.

First, when a user operates the terminal 3 a to start one of clientapplications (assumed to be the client application 301 here) (Step S801in FIG. 31), the client application 301 transmits a connection requestto the service server 91 with a terminal ID (TID: 100) as an argument(Step S802).

The service server 91 having received the connection request checks thesession correlation information 911 stored in the session correlationinformation storage unit 222 to find whether session informationcorresponding to the transmitted terminal ID (TID: 100) exists (StepS803). Since connection to the service server 91 of the terminal 3 a isthe first and session information is yet to be generated here, theservice server 91 newly generates such a session ID as shown in thefirst line of the session information 902 illustrated in FIG. 7 (StepS804). Further as shown in FIG. 29, store the session ID (SID: 1230) inthe session correlation information storage unit 222 so as to becorrelated with the terminal ID (Step S805).

Thereafter, the service server 91 executes processing necessary forservice provision, stores session information which will be necessary inthe future as required in the session information storage unit 211 (StepS806) and lastly returns a response to the terminal 3 a (Step S807). Theterminal 3 a executes such processing as screen display for receivingprovision of service based on the response.

When the user further operates the terminal 3 a to cause another need ofconnection to the service server 91, connect to the service server 91with the terminal ID (SID: 100) as an argument (Step S808). The serviceserver 91 searches the session correlation information storage unit 222to read a session ID (SID: 1230) corresponding to the terminal ID (TID:100) transmitted from the terminal 3 a (Step S809), further readssession information corresponding to the session ID from the sessioninformation storage unit 211 (Step S810), and executes necessaryprocessing to return a response to the terminal 3 a (Step S811).

As operation to follow, execute the processing of Steps S808 to S811.When a user starts other client application, the same processing as thatof Steps 801 to S811 will be repeated with respect to the startedapplication.

Subsequently, description will be made of operation to be executed whentransferring the service used by the terminal 3 a to the terminal 3 b asa transferring destination.

The user operates the terminal 3 a as the transferring source to executeservice transferring operation (Step S812 in FIG. 32). Then, the servicetransfer management unit 312 of the terminal 3 a as the transferringsource communicates with the service transfer management unit 312 of theterminal 3 b as the transferring destination to obtain the terminal ID(TID: 101) of the terminal 3 b as the transferring destination (StepsS813 and S814).

Then, the service transfer management unit 312 of the terminal 3 anotifies the transfer management server 12 of the transfer of theservice with the obtained terminal ID (TID: 101) of the terminal 3 b asthe transferring destination and its own terminal ID (TID: 101) asarguments (Step S815).

When the transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server12 receives the service transfer notification, the service transfernotification unit 131 reads, from the notification destinationinformation storage unit 132, destination information of a serviceserver to be notified of service transfer (Step S816) and notifies theservice server that the service is transferred from the terminal 3 a(TID: 100) to the terminal 3 b (TID: 101). Here, first give anotification to the service server 91 (Step S817).

Upon receiving the service transfer notification, the terminal IDupdating unit 221 of the service server 91 updates the terminal ID (TID:100) of the terminal as the transferring source indicated by the sessioncorrelation information 911 stored in the session correlationinformation storage unit 222 to the terminal ID (TID: 101) of theterminal as the transferring destination and returns a response (StepsS818 and S819).

The transfer management server 12 also notifies the remaining serviceservers of service transfer to execute the same processing (indicatedhere is only the processing at S820 to S822 with respect to the serviceserver 9 n) and lastly returns a notification of processing completionto the terminal 3 a (Step S823).

Thereafter, when the user operates the terminal 3 b as the transferringdestination to activate the client application 301, for example (StepS824), the client application 301 makes a connection request (servicerequest) to the service server 91 with the terminal ID (TID:101) as anargument (Step S825).

The service server 91 searches the session correlation informationstorage unit 222 to read a session ID (SID: 1230) corresponding to theterminal ID (TID: 101) transmitted from the terminal 3 b (Step S826),and further reads session information corresponding to the session IDfrom the session information storage unit 211 (Step S827) and executesnecessary processing to return a response to the terminal 3 b (StepS828).

As operation to be executed hereafter, repeat the processing of StepsS825 to S828. When the user starts other application on the terminal 3b, the same processing as that of Steps S824 to S828 will be executedfor the started application.

Although at Steps S815 to S823, the transfer management server 12returns a response to the terminal 3 a as the transferring source afterservice transfer notification to all the service servers is completed(Step S823), service transfer notification to the service servers may beexecuted after first returning a response to the terminal 3 a (StepsS816 to S822).

Effects of the Eighth Exemplary Embodiment

In addition to the above-described effects of the first exemplaryembodiment, the eighth exemplary embodiment obtains the followingeffects.

According to the first exemplary embodiment, when after servicetransferring operation, a user operates the terminal 3 a as atransferring source to continue the use by mistake, a session ID istransmitted to the service servers 21 to 2 n from the clientapplication, so that the service server executes some processing orother to change a state on the service server side. Such a change of thestate of the service servers 21 to 2 n from a time point where theservice transferring operation is executed might prevent the terminal 3b as the transferring destination from normally continuing service.

According to the present exemplary embodiment, however, when a userexecutes service transferring operation, information about correlationbetween a terminal ID and a session ID stored in the session correlationinformation storage unit 222 is updated by the service servers 91 to 9n. As a result, even when the user tries to continuously use service atthe terminal as a transferring source by mistake after servicetransferring operation, since there exists no correlation informationcorresponding to the terminal ID of the terminal as a transferringsource in the session correlation information storage unit 222, theservice server side is allowed to detect a failure to interrupt theprocessing. Accordingly, the state of the service server side will haveno change, so that the terminal 3 b as the transferring destination isallowed to continue the service normally.

The above-described effect can be obtained also by the second exemplaryembodiment. According to the second exemplary embodiment, however, amechanism is required to cause the service data erasing unit 331provided in the terminal 4 a as a transferring source to control theservice data storage unit 321 which is originally desired to be managedby each client application independently in terms of independence of anapplication. On the other hand, according to the present exemplaryembodiment, since the service transfer management unit needs no controlof a client application, it is possible to prevent erroneous operationof a terminal as a transferring source while maintaining independence ofa client application.

Ninth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, a ninth exemplary embodiment of the present invention will bedetailed with reference to the drawings.

With reference to FIG. 33, a system according to the ninth exemplaryembodiment has a structure which includes a transfer management server13, one or a plurality of service servers 91 to 9 n, a terminal 6 a as atransferring source and a terminal 6 b as a transferring destination,and the ID storage device 7. The system according to the ninth exemplaryembodiment is different from the eighth exemplary embodiment shown inFIG. 26 in the structures of the terminal 6 a as a transferring source,the terminal 6 b as a transferring destination and the transfermanagement server 13 and in using the ID storage device 7. The terminal6 a and the terminal 6 b and the ID storage device 7 have the samestructures as those of the fourth exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 15.

With reference to FIG. 34, as compared with the transfer managementserver 12 of the eighth exemplary embodiment, the transfer managementserver 13 in the ninth exemplary embodiment differs in furthercomprising the terminal change information storage unit 112. Theterminal change information storage unit 112 of the transfer managementserver 13 stores such terminal change information 921 as shown in FIG.35.

Operation of the Ninth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, entire operation of the present exemplary embodiment will bedetailed with reference to FIG. 33, FIG. 34, FIG. 35 and the flow chartof FIG. 36.

Since the procedure of first operating the terminal 6 a to use serviceby a user is the same as that of the eighth exemplary embodiment shownin FIG. 31, no detailed description will be made thereof.

At the time of transferring service used by the terminal 6 a to theterminal 6 b as a transferring destination, the user operates theterminal 6 a as a transferring source to execute the first servicetransferring operation (Step S901 in FIG. 36). At this time, designatethe terminal 6 a in question to be a transferring source.

The user operates the ID storage device 7 and the external ID readingunit 341 of the transferring source terminal 6 a to execute operation ofreading an external ID (assumed to be EID: 4001) from the ID storagedevice 7 (Step S902). Then, the service transfer management unit 312 ofthe transferring source terminal 6 a notifies the transfer managementserver 13 of service transfer and the terminal ID of the transferringsource with its own terminal ID (TID: 100) and the read external ID(EID: 4001) as arguments (Step S903).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 13records a pair of the terminal ID (TID: 100) and the external ID (EID:4001) in the terminal change information storage unit 112 (Step S904) toreturn a notification of recording completion to the terminal 6 a (StepS905).

Thereafter, the user operates the transfer destination terminal 6 b toexecute second service transferring operation (Step S906). At this time,designate the terminal as a transferring destination.

The user operates the same ID storage device 7 and the ID reading unit341 of the transferring destination terminal 6 b as described above toexecute operation of reading the external ID (EID: 4001) from the IDstorage device 7 (Step S907). Then, the service transfer management unit312 of the terminal 6 b as a transferring destination notifies thetransfer management server 13 of service transfer and a terminal ID ofthe transferring destination with its own terminal ID (TID: 101) and theread external ID (EID: 4001) as arguments (Step S908).

The transfer management unit 113 of the transfer management server 13determines that the operation of transferring the service from TID: 100to TID: 101 is executed from the fact that the pair of the external ID(EID: 4001) and TID: 100 is already recorded in the terminal changeinformation storage unit 112 (Step S909). The service transfernotification unit 131 reads, from the notification destinationinformation storage unit 132, address information of a service server towhich a notification of service transfer should be made (Step S910) tonotify the service server that the service is transferred from theterminal 3 a (TID: 100) to the terminal 3 b (TID: 101).

Hereafter, operation at Steps S911 to S916 is the same as that of StepsS817 to S822 in FIG. 31 which shows the procedure of the eighthexemplary embodiment, detailed description of which will be thereforeomitted.

Thereafter, after deleting the pair of the terminal ID (TID: 100) andthe external ID (EID: 4001) stored in the terminal change informationstorage unit 112 (Step S917), the transfer management server 13 lastlyreturns a notification of processing completion to the terminal 6 b(Step S918).

Thereafter, although the user operates the transferring destinationterminal 6 b to start the client application 301, for example (StepS919), since operation to follow is the same as the operation followingStep S825 in FIG. 32 which shows the procedure of the eighth exemplaryembodiment, no detailed description will be made thereof.

While in the foregoing first and second service transferring operation,it is assumed that the user also designates a terminal to be atransferring source or transferring destination, it is possible to omituser's designation with a terminal which first reads an external ID fromthe ID storage device 7 to communicate with the transfer managementserver 13 determined as a terminal as a transferring source and aterminal which reads the ID later to communicate with the transfermanagement server 13 determined as a terminal as a transferringdestination, for example.

Tenth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, a tenth exemplary embodiment of the present invention will bedetailed with reference to the drawings.

With reference to FIG. 37, a system according to the tenth exemplaryembodiment has a structure which includes the transfer management server13, one or a plurality of service servers 91 to 9 n, the terminal 8 a asa transferring source and the terminal 8 b as a transferringdestination. The system according to the tenth exemplary embodiment isdifferent from the eighth exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 26 in thestructures of the terminal 8 a as a transferring source, the terminal 8b as a transferring destination and the transfer management server 13.The terminal 8 a and the terminal 8 b have the same structures as thoseof the sixth exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 21 and the transfermanagement server 13 has the same structure as that of the ninthexemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 34.

Similarly to the ninth exemplary embodiment, the service transfermanagement units 312 of the terminals 8 a and 8 b according to thepresent exemplary embodiment control the temporary key generation unit351 to generate a temporary key and exchange the key between theterminals 8 a and 8 b, as well as communicating with the transfermanagement server 13 to execute processing of transferring servicebetween the terminals.

Operation of the Tenth Exemplary Embodiment

Next, entire operation of the present exemplary embodiment will bedescribed.

Since the procedure of first operating the terminal 8 a to use serviceby a user is the same as that of the eighth exemplary embodiment shownin FIG. 31, no detailed description will be made thereof.

In addition, the procedure of transferring the service used by theterminal 8 a to the terminal 8 b as a transferring destination will beequivalent to a procedure realized by reading Step S605 and Step S608 inFIG. 22 which shows the procedure of the sixth exemplary embodiment asStep S904 and Steps S909 to S917 in FIG. 36 which shows the procedure ofthe ninth exemplary embodiment, respectively. It is assumed that inplace of the external ID (EID) for use in collating a terminal ID of atransferring source and a terminal ID of a transferring destination, atemporary key (Key) is used at Steps S904 and S909.

Since the procedure of operating the transferring destination terminal 8b to continue use of service by the user thereafter is the same as theprocedure following Step S824 in FIG. 32 which shows the procedure ofthe eighth exemplary embodiment, no detailed description will be madethereof.

Eleventh Exemplary Embodiment

Next, an eleventh exemplary embodiment of the present invention will bedetailed with reference to the drawings.

With reference to FIG. 38, a system according to the eleventh exemplaryembodiment has a structure which includes a transfer management server14, one or a plurality of service servers 91 to 9 n, the terminal 3 a asa transferring source and the terminal 3 b as a transferringdestination. The system according to the eleventh exemplary embodimentis different from the eighth exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 26 onlyin the structures of the transfer management server 14. The terminal 3 aand the terminal 3 b have the same structures as those of the firstexemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 2 and the service servers 91 to 9 nhave the same structure as that of the eighth exemplary embodiment shownin FIG. 27.

With reference to FIG. 39, the transfer management server 14 accordingto the eleventh exemplary embodiment differs from the transfermanagement server 13 according to the ninth exemplary embodiment infurther comprising the user authentication information storage unit 121.

Similarly to the seventh exemplary embodiment, at the time of receivinga service transfer notification from the terminal 3 a as a transferringsource and the terminal 3 b as a transferring destination, the transfermanagement server 14 according to the present exemplary embodimentrequests each terminal for user authentication. By thus executing userauthentication by the same user at both the terminals, the terminal 3 aas a transferring source and the terminal 3 b as a transferringdestination are correlated.

Operation of the Eleventh Exemplary Embodiment

Next, entire operation of the present exemplary embodiment will bedetailed.

Since the procedure of first operating the terminal 3 a to use serviceby a user is the same as that of the eighth exemplary embodiment shownin FIG. 31, no detailed description will be made thereof.

In addition, the procedure of transferring the service used by theterminal 3 a to the terminal 3 b as a transferring destination will beequivalent to a procedure realized by reading Step S705 and Step S711 inFIG. 25 which shows the procedure of the seventh exemplary embodiment asStep S904 and Steps S909 to S917 in FIG. 36 which shows the procedure ofthe ninth exemplary embodiment, respectively. It is assumed that inplace of the external ID (EID) for use in collating a terminal ID of atransferring source and a terminal ID of a transferring destination, auser ID (UID) is used at Steps S904 and S909.

Thereafter, the procedure of operating the transferring destinationterminal 3 b to continue use of service by the user is the same as theprocedure following Step S824 in FIG. 32 which shows the procedure ofthe eighth exemplary embodiment, detailed description of which will betherefore omitted.

Here, a hardware structure of the terminal according to each of theexemplary embodiments will be described with reference to FIG. 40.

With reference to FIG. 40, the terminals 3 a and 3 b to 7 a and 7 b,which can be realized by the same hardware structure as that of a commoncomputer, comprise a CPU (Central Processing Unit) 401, a main storageunit 402 which is a main memory such as a RAM (Random Access Memory) foruse as a data working region or a data temporary saving region, acommunication unit 403 which transmits and receives data to/from otherdevice through a network, an input/output interface unit 404 connectedto an input device 405 such as a keyboard or a mouse, an output device406 such as a display device and a storage device 407 to transmit andreceive data, and a system bus 408 which connects the respectivecomponents with each other. The storage device 407 can be realized by ahard disk device or the like formed of a non-volatile memory such as aROM (Read Only Memory), a magnetic disk or a semiconductor memory.

The terminal in each of the exemplary embodiments has its operationrealized not only in hardware by mounting a circuit part which is ahardware part such as an LSI (Large Scale Integration) with a programwhich executes service transferring processing incorporated but also insoftware by storing a program which provides each function that aterminal comprises in the storage device 407 and loading the programinto the main storage unit 402 to execute the program by the CPU 401.

The hardware structures of the service servers 21 to 2 n and thetransfer management server 10 are also the same as those of the terminalshown in FIG. 40, which can be realized in hardware by mounting acircuit part which is a hardware part such as an LSI (Large ScaleIntegration) with a program which executes service transferringprocessing incorporated but also in software by storing a program whichprovides each function of the service servers 21 to 2 n and the transfermanagement server 10 in the storage device 407 and loading the programinto the main storage unit 402 to execute the program by the CPU 401.

The respective exemplary embodiments can be also structured such thatwith a terminal ID of a terminal which uses the service of the serviceservers 21 to 2 n registered in advance as terminal information in theservice servers 21 to 2 n or the transfer management server 10, whenreceiving a notification of service transfer from the terminal, theservice servers 21 to 2 n or the transfer management server 10determines whether the transfer notification comes from an authorizedterminal registered in advance.

When at least one of the terminal IDs of a terminal as a transferringsource and a terminal as a transferring destination which aretransmitted by the notification of service transfer differs from theterminal ID registered in advance, such structure as described in theforegoing enables such a transfer notification to be refused to furtherimprove security in service transfer between the terminals.

In addition, while the above-described respective exemplary embodimentshave been described with respect to the structure comprising anindividual transfer management server, a structure without a transfermanagement server is possible by providing at least one of serviceservers with a function as a transfer management server having theabove-described structure.

Although the present invention has been described with respect to thepreferred exemplary embodiments in the foregoing, the present inventionis not necessarily limited to the above-described exemplary embodimentsand can be implemented in various modifications without departing fromthe scope of its technical idea.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority fromJapanese patent application No. 2008-220228, filed on Aug. 28, 2008, andNo. 2009-027642, filed on Feb. 9, 2009 the disclosure of which isincorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY

The present invention is applicable to such use for, while a user usesservice in various kinds of on-line services or on-line games in whichsuch a terminal is used as a personal computer, a cellular phone, a gameset, a television set and a car navigation system, switching the serviceto another terminal with ease.

What is claimed is:
 1. A transfer management server which managestransfer of service being used by a transferring source terminal to atransferring destination terminal, comprising: a notificationdestination information storage unit which stores notificationdestination information of at least one service server including aservice server that provides said service; a transfer management unitwhich receives, from said transferring source terminal or saidtransferring destination terminal, a notification of transfer of servicewith a terminal ID of the terminal in question and a terminal ID of theother terminal; and a service transfer notification transmission unitwhich, when receiving a notification of transfer of said service,transmits a service transfer notification with the terminal ID of saidtransferring source terminal and the terminal ID of said transferringdestination terminal to said service server stored in said notificationdestination information storage unit.
 2. A transfer management serverwhich manages transfer of service being used by a transferring sourceterminal to a transferring destination terminal, comprising: anotification destination information storage unit which storesnotification destination information of at least one service serverincluding a service server that provides said service; a transfermanagement unit which receives, from said transferring source terminaland said transferring destination terminal, a notification of transferof service with a terminal ID of the terminal in question and anidentification ID which is unique between said transferring sourceterminal and said transferring destination terminal; a terminal changeinformation storage unit which, when receiving a notification oftransfer of said service, stores a pair of the terminal ID of saidtransferring source terminal and said identification ID and a pair ofthe terminal ID of said transferring destination terminal and saididentification ID so as to correspond to each other as terminal changeinformation; and a service transfer notification transmission unit whichtransmits a service transfer notification with the terminal ID of saidtransferring source terminal and the terminal ID of said transferringdestination terminal to said service server stored in said notificationdestination information storage unit by referring to said terminalchange information storage unit.
 3. A terminal which uses serviceprovided by a service server, comprising: a terminal ID storage unitwhich stores a terminal ID applied to each terminal; at least one clientapplication for transmitting said terminal ID to said service server tomake a service request; and a service transfer management unit whichtransmits said terminal ID of the terminal in question and anidentification ID which is unique with respect to the other terminal asa service transferring source or a service transferring destination tosaid transfer management server to notify transfer of service.
 4. Theterminal according to claim 3, further comprising: a service datastorage unit which holds data related to service being used, and anerasing unit which erases data related to the service held in saidservice data storage unit after notifying the transfer of the service tosaid transfer management server.
 5. The terminal according to claim 3,wherein said transferring destination terminal comprises a service datarestructuring unit which reconstructs data related to service based ondata necessary for restructuring data related to service used by thetransferring source terminal, and after notifying service transfer tosaid transfer management server, said service data restructuring unitreconstructs data related to the service based on data necessary forrestructuring data related to the service used by said transferringsource terminal which data is received from said service server bytransmitting the terminal ID of said transferring destination terminal.6. A program stored on a non-transitory medium to be executed on aterminal that uses service provided by a service server, which causessaid terminal to execute: a processing of reading a terminal ID appliedto each terminal from a terminal ID storage unit, at least one clientapplication for transmitting said terminal ID to said service server tomake a service request, and a processing of transmitting a terminal IDof the terminal in question and an identification ID which is uniquewith respect to the other terminal as a service transferring source or aservice transferring destination to said transfer management server tonotify transfer of the service.
 7. The program according to claim 6,which causes said terminal to execute: a processing of holding datarelated to service being used in a service data storage unit, and aprocessing of erasing data related to the service held in said servicedata storage unit after notifying the transfer of the service to saidtransfer management server.
 8. The program according to claim 6, whichcauses said terminal to execute the processing at said transferringdestination terminal, after the notification of service transfer to saidtransfer management server, of restructuring data related to the servicebased on data necessary for restructuring data related to the serviceused by said transferring source terminal which data is received fromsaid service server by transmitting the terminal ID of said transferringdestination terminal.
 9. A program stored on a non-transitory medium tobe executed on a transfer management server that manages transfer ofservice being used by a transferring source terminal to a transferringdestination terminal, which causes said transfer management server toexecute: a processing of reading notification destination information ofat least one service server including a service server that providessaid service from a notification destination information storage unit, aprocessing of receiving, from said transferring source terminal or saidtransferring destination terminal, a notification of transfer of servicewith a terminal ID of the terminal in question and a terminal ID of theother terminal, and a processing, when receiving a notification oftransfer of said service, of transmitting a service transfernotification with a terminal ID of said transferring source terminal anda terminal ID of said transferring destination terminal to said serviceserver read from said notification destination information storage unit.10. A program stored on a non-transitory medium to be executed on atransfer management server that manages transfer of service being usedby a transferring source terminal to a transferring destinationterminal, which causes said transfer management server to execute: aprocessing of reading notification destination information of at leastone service server including a service server that provides said servicefrom a notification destination information storage unit, a processingof receiving, from said transferring source terminal and saidtransferring destination terminal, a notification of transfer of servicewith a terminal ID of the terminal in question and an identification IDwhich is unique between said transferring source terminal and saidtransferring destination terminal, a processing of recording a pair ofthe terminal ID of said transferring source terminal and saididentification ID and a pair of the terminal ID of said transferringdestination terminal and said identification ID so as to correspond toeach other as terminal change information in a terminal changeinformation storage unit when receiving a notification of transfer ofsaid service, and a processing of referring to said terminal changeinformation storage unit to transmit a service transfer notificationwith the terminal ID of said transferring source terminal and theterminal ID of said transferring destination terminal to said serviceserver read from said notification destination information storage unit.11. The terminal according to claim 4, wherein said transferringdestination terminal comprises a service data restructuring unit whichreconstructs data related to service based on data necessary forrestructuring data related to service used by the transferring sourceterminal, and after notifying service transfer to said transfermanagement server, said service data restructuring unit reconstructsdata related to the service based on data necessary for restructuringdata related to the service used by said transferring source terminalwhich data is received from said service server by transmitting theterminal ID of said transferring destination terminal.
 12. The programaccording to claim 7, which causes said terminal to execute theprocessing at said transferring destination terminal, after thenotification of service transfer to said transfer management server, ofrestructuring data related to the service based on data necessary forrestructuring data related to the service used by said transferringsource terminal which data is received from said service server bytransmitting the terminal ID of said transferring destination terminal.